Logging the life of a Navy Dad / Hubby / Geek ...

I am definitely a geek... but no, I am not really a gamer.
When we were little, my older brother and I had a Nintendo (NES). And other than that one time I got in big trouble for pinching him because I felt it should be my turn, I was mostly content watching him play through levels.
Breaking blocks and stomping Koopas, slashing swords in Astynax, jumping through an almost 3D course in Q*bert, feeding weird flavored recipes to a blob, and of course shooting ducks, clay pigeons and laughing Read more [...]

But from the other side, now I am a developer of apps. I see the thousands that enjoy and endlessly praise my apps while they are free but refuse to touch them as if they were a plague when they cost $0.99. I see the negative reviews people leave complaining that they have to pay for additional functionality in an already fully functional FREE game. I see the faceless users belittle my hours and days of late nights and weekends by saying, not worth four quarters. I know … I’m whining. But it fascinates and frustrates me to no end because I don’t understand why the dollar holds such a high value in the App Store. The consumer has every right to do all the things I have mentioned in this paragraph. I as the app developer, work for them.

I spend a lot of time thinking about the perfect app. I haven't come up with the answer to the perfect app, but I have decided on some key criteria that the perfect app must possess.
The perfect app must...
Be social. I go back and forth on whether the social aspect of the app is mandatory for the user or not. Either way has it's benefits. When dial up started to disappear, the thing on everyone's minds was constant connectivity. People didn't want to wait for beeps and blurps to Read more [...]

The other day I played a dice game with the in-laws. Here's the basics:
You start with five dice. Give a roll and see what you have. If you have any 5's or 2's you take out the dice that have the 5's or 2's and roll again (you get a zero for that round). If you roll and do not have any 5's or 2's, you add up all the dice and roll again. Your points accumulate through the rounds until you have no dice left.
So here is an example:
: You roll a 5, 4, 3, 2, and a 4
Since you rolled a 5 and Read more [...]

Hey All -Happy Saturday to you too! There really isn't anything quite as nice compared to waking up just before noon on a sunny spring Saturday with the knowledge that you have nothing to do all day. Well, unfortunately for me, I do have something to do today, I have to clean the bathroom... Let's just put that off for later.So, as I am sure you have noticed, the blog has gotten a face lift. I wanted to try something a little different, a little lighter really. I'm not sure I like the header Read more [...]